Most Notable E3 2018 Game Absences

While this year's E3 had plenty to offer, there were more than a few games people were expecting to see (some based of solid reports/leaks) that were entirely absent. Here, I break down some of the most notable absentees.

Medievil / Shenmue

Last E3 Sony started doing something entirely different spending their entire conference showing trailers for games and had very little talking. This year they did kind of the same thing, but had less to show. For some reason a lot of the titles that got people excited last year were a no show this year. I don’t know if it’s Sony’s intentions to save these announcements for a possible PSX event later this year, or what, but they also didn’t even announce that. It’s not to say Sony’s showcase was lackluster by any means, but they had probably a dozen titles worth talking about and none of them showed up at all.There were plenty titles from the past 2 to 3 years that Sony had announced that have yet to be seen again, and for some reason we have to wait even longer. Shenmue was a huge reveal during a previous E3 due to the crowdfunding effort and Sony reviving a franchise, the second reasoning goes for Medievil as well. So far all we have seen is a teaser trailer for both.

Backwards compatibility / Name changing / Cross platform

Continuing with announcements Sony could have made, they didn’t talk hardware or features at all. One of the exciting things at E3 for a lot of us is when the big 3 tell us where they are taking us in the future. They make the hardware so we want to hear more about the hardware and what new things they are offering us as an industry. Trailers and new games are always cool, but new things to play with are great. There was a heavy rumor that Sony would finally let us change our names online, a simple request we’ve had for 10 years now, and it didn’t happen. There wasn’t any hint of backwards compatibility either, and Xbox is kind of running away with it since their announcement of all future Xbox games working with all Xbox consoles. Lastly cross platform play is still a big no from Sony, making all the Nintendo Switch fans angry that their PS4 Fortnite accounts can’t head on the road with them. I guess I should be happy that there wasn’t a segment about PS Now….

Fable

While Microsoft improved heavily this E3, and we talked about that elsewhere, they still could have done better. While not directly confirming its existence, Fable is out in the wild somewhere and Microsoft still has yet to talk about it. Microsoft could have easily pulled a Sony and announced games way far out just to make fans realize their library is growing, but they only did it with Halo.With them announcing their new studios, one of them being the rumored studio behind the next Fable, you would think they would toss plans in the mix too. I mean EA has announced how many non existant Star Wars titles now? We even talked about how Sony announced games for years now that still haven't been shown. Maybe if Microsoft can show us just how robust their line "can be" then some of their issues would be solved.

Splinter cell

I’m not sure what happened here. It was almost a guarantee Splinter Cell was going to be at E3 and yet Ubisoft didn’t even hint at the franchise in any way. There was a leak, that was later confirmed, showing off a dozen or so games including a new Splinter Cell, and every other title on the list was shown off. Yet where was Splinter Cell? I think something happened last minute to push it out of E3.

Borderlands 3

While not entirely shocking, fans were expecting some sort of tease for the Borderlands franchise to return, but similar to Splinter Cell, Gearbox was rather quiet.I was personally expecting this to be a big reveal during the Microsoft conference...

Final Fantasy 7 Remake (Or remakes in general)

This whole generation seems to be remaster after remaster, but there are a few games that people actually want re-done with modern day visuals. One of them got announced 3 years ago at Sony’s E3 2015 press conference, FF7. They then followed up with actual gameplay at PSX later that year, and it felt very real. Then it disappeared and nobody has seen it since. The bad news escalates when you see the studio hiring for key talent, meaning this game could very well be stuck in development hell. Don’t remind me how long I waited for Kingdom Hearts 3.

Another remaster that was somewhat picking up steam, but hasn’t been announced, was Metal Gear Solid. MGS3 had been slightly “re-done” for a casino machine, and with Metal Gear Survive bombing worse than any major release I’ve seen lately, I assumed Konami would go a safe route of remastering a classic for easy money. Turns out they simply don’t make video games anymore, I guess.

Mortal Kombat

A lot of lead up to E3 by the studio behind the game, and the games even went on sale. Then they were no shows for all of E3. Is there another event all these devs agreed to show up at instead?

Rocksteady’s Superman

This is one of those wished for games that nobody really knows if it exists. Rocksteady ended their Batman run, and many people are hyped that they will head towards Superman now, but we really don’t know. We want to know what it is they are working on!

Marvel Games

Speaking of superhero games, Disney has released Marvel to be licensed on a per game basis. Activision no longer owns exclusive rights, which is why random titles have been popping up. Insomniac is blowing us away with Spider-Man, but I’m curious why nobody has picked up an X-Men title, or Avengers, or a Marvel Ultimate Alliance type of title. The license is there, but nobody seems to be using it at the moment. We could only wish Disney would do the same with Star Wars though.

We could probably go on for days talking about all the games we wish were at E3. Heck the show could have shown off all of these, plus dozens more, and I'm sure we'd still have games we would want to see. So what games were missing from E3 this year that you are disapointed didn't make the show ?